30 More Prisoners Arrive at Guantanamo Bay

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – Thirty more Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners arrived Wednesday at this remote U.S. military base, where officials warned that several inmates have threatened to kill an American during their time here.

About 60 armed Marines met the group, who arrived aboard a U.S. Air Force C-141 cargo plane. The soldiers grasped each prisoner by the shoulders, leading them to waiting school buses.

The inmates' ankles were chained together and they wore bright orange jumpsuits, knit caps and surgical masks. They were also blindfolded for security reasons.

The latest group brings the total number of prisoners at the base to 80, said Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, commander of U.S. Joint Task Force 160 overseeing the operation in Guantanamo Bay.

Thirty additional prisoners were flown from Kandahar Wednesday and will boost the total number at Guantanamo Bay to 110 once they arrive.

"These are not nice people," Lehnert told a news conference at an aircraft hangar on the base in eastern Cuba. "Several have publicly stated here their intent to kill an American before they leave Guantanamo Bay. We will not give them that satisfaction."

Lehnert said none have been interrogated yet and it was unclear when or if they would be offered legal advice.

"They spend their days praying, meditating, eating," he said.

The temporary detention center can hold 200 inmates but will be expanded to hold more than 600 while builders complete a permanent facility that can hold 2,000 detainees.

Lehnert said the prisoners were being treated humanely and a team from the international Red Cross would inspect conditions Thursday. He showed reporters a foam cot the prisoners were given to sleep on and plastic bags of rations that included breakfast bagels, fruit and beef stew prepared to Muslim dietary standards.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday President Bush was satisfied with the prisoners' treatment.

"It is humane; it is respectful," Fleischer said. "The president is satisfied that they are being treated as Americans would want people to be treated."

Doctors on the base performed surgery on a prisoner they said had been shot about a month ago in Afghanistan, the military said in a statement earlier Wednesday.

The surgery was performed Sunday on the man's upper right arm. The prisoner was expected to regain motion in his elbow and shoulder but may have limited mobility in his wrist due to nerve damage.

The circumstances of the shooting were unclear but Lt. Col. Bill Costello said the prisoner had been shot before he was detained.

The United States is holding more than 400 prisoners at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan. Ninety prisoners of Pakistani origin will be transferred to Pakistan, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.

None of the detainees has been identified by U.S. officials. A Saudi Interior Ministry official said Wednesday that some Saudis captured in Afghanistan were among detainees transferred to Guantanamo Bay. British officials have said three Britons are among the prisoners on this remote base, the oldest U.S. overseas outpost.

The prisoners will eventually face intense interrogation, especially concerning the whereabouts of accused terrorist Usama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Wednesday urged respect for the prisoners' human rights.

"All persons detained ... are entitled to the protection of international human rights law and humanitarian law," Robinson told reporters in Geneva. "I would like to see a strong affirmation that these standards are the fundamental principles of democratic countries and the rule of law, rather than reluctant concessions ..."

Human rights campaigners have criticized detention conditions. The London-based rights group Amnesty International said the plan to house detainees in "cages" would "fall below minimum standards for humane treatment," and that the temporary cells — six feet by eight feet — are smaller than "that considered acceptable under U.S. standards for ordinary prisoners."

U.S. officials insist conditions do not violate human rights. The United States is reserving the right to try Al Qaeda and Taliban captives on its own terms and is not calling them "prisoners of war," a designation that would invoke the Geneva Convention.

Robinson said the legal status of the detainees must be determined by "a competent tribunal, in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention."